Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 12, 2004

York Minster — historically, city status was associated with the presence of a cathedral.

City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British Monarch to a select group of communities. The status does not apply automatically on the basis of any particular criteria, although it was traditionally given to towns with diocesan cathedrals. Normally, city status is conferred by Royal Charters, but there are some British cities which predate the historical monarchy and have been regarded as cities since "time immemorial." There are currently sixty-six officially designated cities in the UK, of which eight have been created since 2000 in competitions to celebrate the new millennium and the Queen's Golden Jubilee. (more...)

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